Plants: in thin to dense mats, pale to yellow-green, sometimes brownish, dull. Stems: with central strand absent or poorly developed; axillary hair apical cells 4. Stem: and branch leaves similar, stiff, close, imbricate and somewhat contorted when dry, erect-spreading when moist, oblong-ovate to nearly lingulate, symmetric, not plicate; margins plane, entire or serrulate near apex; apex abruptly acute to obtuse, sometimes apiculate; costa 2/3–3/4 leaf length; laminal cell walls thick; medial and distal cells quadrate to rhomboidal, 1-papillose over lumina on both surfaces or sometimes smooth. Perigonia: with leaves costate. Perichaetia: at base of stems, leaves oblong-lanceolate, costate, proximal laminal cells rectangular, distal cells linear-flexuose. Seta: orange to reddish, straight to somewhat flexuose. Capsule: cernuous or rarely erect, orange to brown, ellipsoid to ovoid; exothecial cell walls thin; annulus persistent, 2- or 3-seriate, cell walls firm; operculum short-rostrate, sometimes oblique; exostome teeth shouldered, internal surface projecting; endostome finely papillose, basal membrane high, segments almost as long as exostome teeth, cilia 1–3, shorter than segments. Spores: spheric to ovoid, 12–24 µm. sc, se United States, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America, Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands (Philippines), Australia.
Species 2 (1 in the flora). The second species in the genus, Stereophyllum linisii Enroth & B. C. Tan, was described in 2007 from the Philippines.